


Magnetic Attraction

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: AU, Gen, Sentinel Bingo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-31 05:37:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15112904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: A group of Scouts on an orienteering trip get lost





	Magnetic Attraction

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2018 sentinel bingo prompt 'attraction'
> 
> This story is set in a universe where Sentinels and Guides are known

 

Magnetic Attraction

by Bluewolf

Although Jim and Blair were normally concerned only with the needs of their own department, there was a clause in the small print on their contracts that said that if Search and Rescue needed them, that took priority over everything else.

***

It was late afternoon when SAR phoned Cascade PD about a group of six missing twelve-year-olds.

They were Scouts who had been on an orienteering exercise; it involved simple route-finding, but they hadn't arrived at their designated destination. It was a new route that no Scout had previously done; one of the volunteer leaders knew the area well, and had, from his knowledge of it, given the group the various points they had to find as they crossed the ground. It should have taken them no more than three hours.

When they failed to arrive, the volunteer had gone over the route; they had reached the third of eight set points, but the item they had to collect from the fourth point was still there. They had obviously gone astray between the third and fourth points, but the volunteer had seen no sign of them. SAR had been called out, but a quick sweep of the ground had turned up nothing.

Although it was now close to the end of their shift, the two men hurried to Jim's truck and headed for the point where the orienteering exercise had begun. En route, Jim muttered something he had said several times in the years since knowledge of sentinels and their abilities had become accepted. "SAR should have its own sentinels - at least one per unit!"

It wasn't that he grudged helping SAR; he simply felt that if they had their own sentinel it could speed up a rescue.

And as usual, Blair nodded agreement, feeling, as he so often did, that Jim was overworked by being called on to help units other than those in Cascade PD - as he regularly was.

***

The volunteer who had set the course was waiting with the SAR unit, and led the way to the third set point. "They got lost somewhere after here," he said.

Jim looked around, then shook his head. "There have been too many people crossing the ground here for any tracks to show up," he said. Then he frowned. "What direction would they take from here?"

The volunteer, who had been introduced to them as Daley Isaacs, pointed in a nearly southerly direction..

"What compass direction would they have been given?"

"South-east, bearing 153."

"Chief?"

Blair pulled out a small pocket compass and checked it.

"How did you decide on the bearing?" he asked.

"We used an inch to the mile map."

"You didn't actually come out and follow a compass route around?"

"I've never needed a compass here," Daley said. "I grew up in this area, and I know it better than the back of my hand. It was easiest to use the map - if I'd gone around the route taking note of the compass directions, it would have taken me close on three hours; doing in on the map took roughly fifteen minutes."

"If you had gone around the route," Blair said, "you'd have known there would be a problem. The way you pointed doesn't match bearing 153 on the compass."

"What? That's impossible!"

"That bearing takes you that way." The direction he pointed was fully fifty degrees east of the direction Daley had indicated.

Daley could only repeat in a disbelieving voice, "That's impossible!"

"Are there iron deposits in the area?" Jim asked.

"Not that I know of. Though... I believe there was some mining in the area last century, but I don't know what was mined."

"I'd make a bet that it was iron," Blair said. "And iron provides a positive attraction for a magnet. Their compass needle was drawn to the iron remaining in the ground, and by following that, they got lost. By the time they realized they were lost, they'd probably also lost any chance they might have had of retracing their route."

"Okay," Jim said. "This way." He set off in the direction Blair had indicated, the others following - it was possible that one or more of the youngsters would be too tired to walk back, so they needed manpower to carry six youngsters if it should be necessary - with Daley bringing up the rear.

They hadn't gone far before Jim nodded. "I'm picking up footprints." He speeded up.

It was nearly two hours before he said anything more. "I'm hearing voices... yes. They're trying to decide whether they're better to stick with their original decision to stay put in the hope that a search party will look for them, or try to retrace their route. But even if they try to work out a bearing back to where they went astray, there's no guarantee the compass needle mightn't be pulled away from the direct line back."

"I'd guess it probably would," Blair said.

Jim changed direction slightly and the rescue party speeded up a little more.

***

Daley was more than apologetic when the rescuers found the young Scouts five minutes later.

"Staying put when you realized you were lost was the right decision - and it wasn't your fault you got lost," he told them. "I've never needed a compass here, so didn't realize there are some iron deposits underground that can influence compass readings. As it is, we needed Sentinel Ellison to track you - he could follow your footprints where nobody else could make them out.

"Now, do you feel able to walk back to - well, civilization? It’ll be dark soon, but we have flashlights."

The six looked at each other, then one, who appeared to be the natural leader of the group, nodded. "I think we can, sir."

Jim could have led them back, but he allowed Daley the sop to his pride that taking the lead gave him.

At least this call-out was relatively painless, and - unlike some - had a positive conclusion.


End file.
